Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Winding down, IRFD 2015

This year's International Rock Flipping Day was quiet. While there was a good response before the actual day, few people reported in with findings, and Googling only turned up one other entry. Maybe people had the same problem finding good rocks as I had.

But we did find a few real gems!

First, did you know that we humans aren't the only ones flipping rocks? Anna, of The BlennyWatcher Blog, let goatfish do all the work for her, and just sat back and took video footage. Go see.

On the IRFD Facebook page, the first post showed a slug and a pupal case. (I think that's a moth inside.)

And Slow: Children at Nature Play went out with two kids and found a Dunn's salamander, and other critters. "So much fun!", she says.

The salamander. From the IRFD Facebook page.

In the comments on the Celebrate Science IRFD post, Dana Rau posted a Rock Flipping Day poem.

I lift your heavy door 
to find
busy you
on your way from
one side of your space
to the other. 
The surprising sunlight
curls you into
a spiral
to protect all those legs
and underparts. 
Between fight and flight
you choose
freeze
and hope
someone remembers
to shut the door
so you can get on
with your interrupted
business.

And that's about it. I found the beetle, and the ants and spider. And later on, down at the shore, I turned over a stone and crabs scuttled quickly out of sight. Except for one brave little guy; he was ready to take me on, defending his territory.

"Back off!"

"And I don't care how big you are, either!"



I think, unless there is a public outcry, this will be the last year I host the IRFD. If anyone is interested in taking it up, I'll be glad to participate, of course.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I had no idea that International Rock Flipping Day had a host. Thanks so much for all your great work. Love the salamander.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I finally got around to posting our results from IRFD, exactly one week late. So sorry about that. We had a great time, though, and even found some adorable cuddly neighborhood kittens there. :-) Bonus kitten snuggles definitely make the best IRFD! :-)

    ReplyDelete

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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